Seeing it folded like this also explained the strange cutouts on the furniture - those on the back were there solely to accommodate the lower tube, and the one on the front grip was for the trigger guard. With a flick of her arm, the gunsmith caused the weapon’s front end to spring upward, seamlessly locking into place with a resounding CLACK.
“Based on documentation for its mass-production counterpart, the Collier-Burgess Type-nineteen “Tyrant Muncher” shotgun. Some of the part...
2022-01-25 18:19:23 +0000 UTC
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Zefaris knew she should feel a cautious reverence for such dangerous things, but in truth, she only felt giddiness - a feeling that was only intensified when, before she even got around to putting all the stuff into the bag, Collier started up another line of conversation entirely.
“So, that out of the way, what about the real reason I called you, eh? Wait here a touch.”
Once again, the gunsmith disappeared into the back before Zefaris could react in any meaningful way. There ...
2022-01-24 18:32:41 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Hate to do this again within a short timespan, but I've got an allergy flareup going again, uncontrollable sneezing and everything. Probably no chapter tomorrow.
Also this is a reupload with text and scheduling fixes.
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There was also a disclaimer and a diagram depicting the order of operations on the side of the cabinet.
CUSTOMERS MUST BE OF LEGAL AGE AND HA...
2022-01-22 19:40:57 +0000 UTC
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It had never come up, as while the Black Wall had been raised before, its function had always been permitted to run its course naturally. “To remove the wall altogether and so suddenly would be foolish, it would force too many hands. The war would start right back up all over again and who knows how many Exclusion Zone situations we'd have on our hands then, even if the Inheritors would be entirely justified in such desperate action.”
“That… Hm… Yes, I suppose...
2022-01-21 19:15:26 +0000 UTC
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EDIT A/N: I did a big dumb and got the two brothers mixed up, the Black-robed Brother is Hedan. It's fixed now.
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Subject ZN having developed some manner of direct communication between the Upper and Lower Cognitive Plane explains every inconsistency with her previously observed performance, and promises the potential invention of an entirely novel Twin Intertwined Branch. If this is the ...
2022-01-20 18:46:39 +0000 UTC
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External observations of the transformation line up with early stages of the Supreme Path of Blazing Fires, but the underlying principles are clearly different in operation, more akin to a new type of arkatek power generator known as a “reactor”, wherein two or more destabilized essentia are made to react with an azothic catalyst to produce a greater quantity of energy than is input. How the Sage of Fog came upon the principles behind this technology are unknown, but his suspected tra...
2022-01-19 19:37:26 +0000 UTC
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It stretched on for minutes and hours, and Zel took the opportunity to for once play the part of spectator, quietly making her way about the yard and deriving great amusement from the would-be recruits’ reactions to her mere presence. Some shrunk from her, flinching merely at her gaze, while others grew noticeably tense as they - understandably - tried to put on a good show for the sect elder. Those who had stood out to her previously maintained their focus, least of all the Mercenary in hi...
2022-01-18 18:32:21 +0000 UTC
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A/N: No chapter tomorrow for family reasons.
They crossed through the gate at this point, and Zel confidently answered as they reached the base of the stairwell, striding towards the basement door instead of the stairs: “Right on this floor… I think.”
A few steps later, another question came to mind: “Blood-red walking tank?”
“Yeah, big damn thing, I’d say about half again as tall as the other walking tanks, a good bit fatter too, painted blood-red with a white...
2022-01-16 17:47:36 +0000 UTC
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Reality came rushing back in, an all-consuming, wordless scream of “CANNOT BE” as the mundane reasserted itself over the arcane, the underground meadow uniformly, glaringly bright .
Zel blinked, her eyes painfully dry, and scales of metal slag fell from her eyelids. As she struggled to raise her hands and veritable curtains of brittle scale fell from her skin, and she saw the pearlescent tendril retreat into the empyrean river, Jorfr’s form slumping forward as he drew in ragged br...
2022-01-15 18:39:20 +0000 UTC
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Zel answered without dwelling on it, grasping the first mental thread that came into her grasp: “To possess true freedom through supremacy over the self. To acknowledge one’s flaws and move past them. To stand against insurmountable odds and arise not merely victorious, but to appear as if the feat were effortless. To inspire legends and live up to them twice over.”
“Is that all?” asked the spirits, their glow briefly drowning out Jorfr’s irises.
2022-01-14 19:42:28 +0000 UTC
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Blackness stretched out all around, but in the distance, she saw yet more iridescent flows like this one, like veins stretching out throughout a living thing, only… This particular river was disturbed, she felt something had driven it into this frothing rage, and she wagered she could guess what - or rather, who - was the culprit.
Whence the earthly spirits surrounding them had been blinding masses before, now they were no more than colorful stars amidst a sea of their kind, barely ev...
2022-01-13 19:16:52 +0000 UTC
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She couldn’t quite tell how long it was, in the end, but the more complete the body paint became, the more bearable it was. The curious feeling could now be compared to her upper half being submerged in warm water that happened to also contain swarms of infinitesimally tiny creatures.
“Alright, turn back around and hold your arms out so I can put the pelt on you. Now the difficult part…” said the norseman, standing and grasping the pelt by its edges.
When his fingers wrapp...
2022-01-12 19:50:03 +0000 UTC
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Before she could even process the sensory overload of witnessing, hearing, and smelling the veritable palace of a kitchen, Ozmir had already whipped his head around to look at her, grinning expectantly as an even larger portion of food steamed upon a plate, just sat there on a counter within arm’s reach.
“Count yourself lucky, dear elder,” he said facetiously. “This chef knows how ravenous a cultivator’s appetite grows after a fierce battle. Oh, and just leave the dishes on th...
2022-01-11 18:35:13 +0000 UTC
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“My Clear Sky Thundergod produces lightning strikes from a cloudless sky, instantaneous and nearly unpredictable, which, as you learned first-hand, informs my focus on speed and surprise attack, even if I restrained myself to the techniques I knew when I was a novice, as you are now.”
Again, she chained the smoke construct, reshaping the cloud into an obelisk, taking her feet off the table and leaning forward with her right hand over the scene and sending down miniature lightning bo...
2022-01-10 22:18:09 +0000 UTC
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“Alright, first one. What are those rocks? I recall seeing the same glyphic script on the stones surrounding the Exclusion Zone,” Zel prodded, pointing with a knife at the ward generator. She proceeded to cut off a rib and strip the meat from it with her tongue, only to toss the bone into her mouth, and with horrendous crunching, she devoured it, as well.
The Matriarch’s enigmatic countenance cracked under that first question, her eyebrow raising in a counter question of her own; ...
2022-01-09 19:17:06 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Sorry, no chapter tomorrow. I think I actually got a proper head cold for once instead of an allergic flareup, but whichever it is, I'm not getting more than some editing done today.
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On the other hand, Rebore - the more common variant by far - was relatively easy to grow, with the body of the plant used for fabrics, while its leaves and buds were used for various intoxicants, most commonly pipe...
2022-01-07 19:35:30 +0000 UTC
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Her attention remained fixed on this chant, echoing in her mind even as she walked through the central hall, aware of the people surrounding her, but losing focus more and more with each step taken.
Makhus and Sigmund were present, although she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, only the congratulatory tone and their expressions - a somewhat surprised smile for Makhus, and a calm look of approval for Sig. She could’ve sworn she heard him mention the uraganrána, but that...
2022-01-06 19:49:02 +0000 UTC
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Arnys not only saw it happen, she physically felt the pressurized deluge of mnemonically imprinted aether flood through her opponent’s body and blade.
Not one to suffer defeat by merely being outranged, Arnys repeated the trick she’d used earlier, flowing Fulgur along the edge of her own weapon and forming a blade of condensed lightning around it.
It took shape nearly instantaneously, and it was still just barely in time.
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2022-01-05 19:34:23 +0000 UTC
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Rather, she would’ve, had the Matriarch not skillfully loosened her grip for just long enough that the handle rotated in her hand, only to grab it once more before it could leave her grasp.
Even so, the sword was stuck for long enough that Zelsys could deliver a downward cut that would’ve bisected her diagonally from the collarbone to the hip if it had not been for the stamp’s protection.
Indeed, even seething yellow-white heat were not enough to overwhelm that vaunted Syste...
2022-01-04 20:18:12 +0000 UTC
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That thing had returned. There, in the gap between lightning bolts, the outline of that humanoid monstrosity. And the antlers, they weren’t ephemeral anymore, they were full manifestations wrought of congealed essentia, solid enough for even the layman to see - the left pointy and made of nearly straight lines, while the other a gnarled, twisting thing that nearly looked like a tree’s branch.
Arnys saw it take hold of Newman’s body as she proclaimed that boastful ...
2022-01-03 20:05:47 +0000 UTC
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By the time Arnys ceased the curious blade-spinning routine, the charge disparity around her was visible. Yellow sparks flashed in a circling maelstrom about the woman, dust particles becoming magnetized and getting whipped up in the mess. By the time she raised her sword to the heavens and spoke, Zelsys had not only finished refining the compressed aether in her second stomach into a pre-metabolized form ideal for its intended use, but filled her mouth with a somewhat stable sphere of lightn...
2022-01-02 19:07:17 +0000 UTC
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At one point, Arnys found herself in a grapple and managed to reverse it, only for Newman to turn her upper body all the way around to deliver a palm-heel to her ear. The stretching of muscle, the sickening crunch of bone, and that ever-amused grin plastered over Newman’s face as the matriarch let go in favor of taking a second bone-crushing hook to the skull and risking loss of consciousness. Hell, she was certain that first punch wasn’t at full strength...
2022-01-01 18:27:29 +0000 UTC
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In order to keep herself safe, and more importantly, to manipulate the fight to her advantage, she switched to Slayer Style and began using Siphoning Pulse, liberally so, with this defense being the main consumer of the spare essentia output that she saved by attacking conservatively.
This strange style went against everything that came to her naturally, it was an aberration of game theory derived from the nature of this fight. In a manner of speaking, ...
2021-12-31 18:53:04 +0000 UTC
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The very next moment, the Butcher’s beak-like point slipped in under the Matriarch’s left arm, the dull-red glow of its edge soon overtaken by the red of spilling blood as it sunk a good few centimeters into a gap between ribs before her flesh was hardened beyond its ability to cut. After the right came the left, Zel’s arm snapping from a bent to a perfectly straight position with a flash of white and a nearly one-hundred and eighty degree turn of her fist. It felt like punching a vat o...
2021-12-30 19:48:58 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Sorry for the late post. I couldn't think of a title and then got distracted while trying to think of one.
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There was a glimmer in Zel’s eyes before Arnys felt the massive woman’s fingers dig into her skin, her weight scooped up as if she were a ragdoll before she felt herself get tossed across the arena. Having been able to prepare, she was able to right herself and land on her feet.
...
2021-12-29 22:03:17 +0000 UTC
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The same arcanist called out again, first in Kargarian, then in Ikesian.
“Cease all active magicks and shake hands!”
Zelsys nodded in acknowledgment and stopped pointlessly expelling huge amounts of essentia, sliding her hands into her pockets as she began to slowly walk towards Arnys.
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A slow, tense approach, each woman exuding a monolithic presence in her own right.
An exchang...
2021-12-28 18:29:49 +0000 UTC
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Zelsys was a folk hero for the new epoch, having stepped straight out of the pages, off the propaganda posters, and into reality, now facing a woman whose identity as a pirate queen and a scourge of Pateiria’s colonies was all but an open secret… In a friendly exhibition match.
The weeks leading up to this had served to change the mood of Willowdale’s populace for the better, to sow the seeds of optimism among their ranks, that much was true, but this was something different.
<...
2021-12-27 18:46:31 +0000 UTC
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As this went on Zel stockpiled Fulgur in her second stomach, though not in an effort to gain the upper hand in the opening clash. She waited and bided her time until the man with the aetherwave perked up, until she heard voices saying something in Kargarian in his headphones, until he raised a hand and gave her a thumbs-up. It was time.
Zelsys stood up, focused on two things - walking with as much swagger as conceivable for a living thing, and keeping the payload of Fulgur in her second...
2021-12-23 20:09:48 +0000 UTC
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The match was scheduled at noon, ensuring that those few who did work on Sunday could conceivably come to see it, and see it they would, in no small part thanks to a campaign of word-of-mouth advertisement orchestrated by the Krishorns, not to mention natural rumor and the attention of local news publications.
With the courtyard off-limits as it was, Zel warmed up in the basement gym, drilling striking technique even mere hours before the match. However, by the time nine in the morning ...
2021-12-22 19:50:25 +0000 UTC
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When it came down to specifics of their agreement, the Primordial Self proved to have a surprisingly strong grasp of explaining its own knowledge of bodily workings in exceedingly simple terms and abstractions.
It effectively came down to the thoughtform demanding: “Bone to build bone, meat to build meat, white-veins to build white-veins.”
“White-veins?” Zel asked.
“Aether channels. They are difficult,” the Primordial Self answered.
The Primordial Self even...
2021-12-21 17:29:31 +0000 UTC
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